


5. Underwater

by InfinityIllusion



Series: On the First Day of Christmas maisumi Gave to Me... [5]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Time Travel, no I'm still not over the time skip, tw: drowning, why do you ask?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28404642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityIllusion/pseuds/InfinityIllusion
Summary: Ichigo drowns in a broken soul.  Until he doesn't.(Or: Ichigo yeets his soul back in time.)
Relationships: Hollow Ichigo | Zangetsu & Kurosaki Ichigo & Old Man Zangetsu | Quincy Zangetsu, Kurosaki Ichigo & Urahara Kisuke
Series: On the First Day of Christmas maisumi Gave to Me... [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075151
Comments: 6
Kudos: 136





	5. Underwater

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone was making bets for a time travel fic being included in this series, congratulations! Have a cookie!
> 
> In other news, this fic is brought to you by some official art that I had as a computer background with Ichigo wearing street fashion but also looking like he was underwater. And I also might be mis-remembering what it looks like, but here we are anyways.

* * *

Ichigo drowns every night in his dreams. He has for over a year. He drowns in an ocean clear enough to see for miles -- a crystal blue he’s only seen peripherally, too busy to examine further when it’s ringed his vision in the past.

The only things that interrupts the serenity of the scene are his own body and white boxes like jellyfish, scattered and bobbing on invisible currents. Unlike the boxes, Ichigo remains frozen in place, like a pane of glass inserted into the sea.

He can’t reach any of the boxes, can’t even move much more than his head as he struggles, mouth open and calling, calling, _calling_ , and so he drowns and drowns and drowns.

And drowns.

And d r o w n s.

But the boxes float on, eventually bumping into his glass pane, and they cluster together now, less like jellyfish and more like insects. They jostle and push and mold into each other, and then one day they cover him completely, all in a rush. It’s not like his Hollow transformation, which was a rush of red and black and either madness or pain or both. But it’s not dislike it either, the white flowing up over him, consuming him, blotting the rest of the world out.

What Ichigo doesn’t see is the blue flaring vermillion (like spider lilies and blood and pain and spirit ribbons) as he’s cocooned in white.

And Ichigo breathes, fast paced, and because he _can_ , as if to make up for all the times he’s drowned in his own soul, held prisoner by his own choices.

But he’s breathing, now, eyes obscured behind a familiar horned mask, which he takes off with more care than the last time.

Admittedly, he has a much better understanding of (and with) his powers now, to say nothing of his appreciation. And in the back of his mind Zangetsu stops cackling like madness is all he knows (which was never quite true) and starts again with joy mingled with hysteria. Even the Old Man seems to be experiencing some kind of emotions.

There’s no need to punch and tear this mask off, but it does serve to hide a few stray tears. Now’s not the time for a break down, though.

“Hey, Getaboushi,” he says, voice still double timbered, eyes likely as not still gold. “Think you could teach me to assassinate a butterfly?”

Getaboushi, stares down at him under that damn bucket hat, cane drawn, but not unsheathed.

“A butterfly, Kurosaki-kun?”

“Yeah,” Ichigo chuckles as he extends his hand holding his mask, armor, tail, and fur receding until he’s left in his standard Shinigami garb. Standard for this time, but for the twin swords on his back, but Getaboushi doesn’t know that.

The mask grins at him a moment longer as if to appreciate the trick he’s about to play before it dissolves too.

“A butterfly with a penchant for illusions and power.”

“Ah,” Getaboushi pauses. “Well, it seems you’ve come through the Shattered Shaft with your powers intact...”

Ichigo does not shudder because he’s here and his spirits are here and with him and so is his power, and forces himself to shrug instead. “Want me to prove it by taking your hat off?”

Getaboushi seems to recover his cheer immediately, though his eyes are still shadowed. “Why Kurosaki-kun! Do you think can-?”

Ichigo feels the hum of anticipation as Zangetsu prepares for a fight. The Old Man is even riled up, and that just makes his first move more obvious, to him. He lets his own anticipation paint itself like a grin on his face and whispers, “ _Bankai_.”

And from there the chase is on.

Less than an hour later, Ichigo tosses the striped bucket hat back and forth between his hands. He’s really contemplating just slicing it to ribbons, but the hat itself hasn’t done anything to him. Getaboushi’s use of it to hide though, is exceedingly annoying. Maybe Ichigo will just keep it, see how the inventor likes it.

“So Getaboushi,” he says from his perch on a newly formed cliff, “what’re your thoughts on time travel?”

"Maa, maa, Kurosaki-kun. That might just explain some things..." Getaboushi huffs up at him.

Ichigo smirks.

* * *

And then plot...?

Anyways, kudos and comments welcome!

I hope you're as safe a healthy as possible!

~Fins

**Author's Note:**

> Now continued in prompt 9. Ittokan!


End file.
